Addressing marine restoration success: evidence of species and functional diversity recovery in a ten-year restored macroalgal forest
dc.contributor.author
dc.date.accessioned
2024-01-09T14:46:18Z
dc.date.available
2024-01-09T14:46:18Z
dc.date.issued
2023-06-02
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dc.description.abstract
Active restoration actions are becoming increasingly common for the recovery of degraded ecosystems. However, establishing when an ecosystem is fully restored is rarely achieved, since the recovery of entire communities needs long-term trajectories. The lack of evidence of success is even more severe in marine ecosystems, especially in the context of macroalgal forests, where beyond the vegetation structure and species diversity there is no approximation determining the recovery of the overall functionality. Trait-based ecology facilitates the link between species composition and ecosystem functions and processes. In this study, we used a trait-based approach to assess functional recovery ten years after the start of a restoration action in a marine macroalgal forest. Species and functional diversity were compared among the restored locality, a nearby locality where the expansion of the restoration is naturally occurring, a neighbouring non-restored locality (at a distance of a few meters), and the only two remaining localities dominated by the same structural macroalga that were used as reference (non-perturbed). Species diversity and composition of the restored locality were similar to those found in reference macroalgal forests, while the non-restored and expansion locality showed different species composition and lower species diversity. Functional richness was 4-fold higher in the restored locality than in the non-restored one, even surpassing one reference macroalgal locality. The restored locality showed a greater number of trait categories, especially traits related to higher structural complexity and longer life spans, indicating changes in ecosystem functions and processes. The restoration of a canopy-forming macroalga is the first step to achieving the recovery of an entire macroalgal forest (i.e., associated species and functional diversity). The application of traditional taxonomical indices plus functional parameters provides useful insights into the assessment of the success of restoration actions at the community level, emerging as a promising approach to be replicated and contrasted in other marine and terrestrial ecosystems
dc.description.sponsorship
This research was supported by the Sustainable Blue Economy program (European Union) under the grant agreement – AFRIMED - EASME/EMFF/2017/1.2.1.12/S4/01/SI2.789059, the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation under the grant FORESTA - N° PID2020-112985GB-I00, funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 (European Union), and under the grant FoRescue – N° PCI2022-135070-2 funded by Biodiversa+ (European Biodiversity Partnership). CG was funded by Fundación Tatiana Pérez de Guzmán el Bueno predoctoral fellowship (Medioambiente 2019). RG was supported by an FPI grant (ANIMA – BES-2017-079907)
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application/pdf
dc.language.iso
eng
dc.publisher
Frontiers Media
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Reproducció digital del document publicat a: https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2023.1176655
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Frontiers in Marine Science, 2023, vol. 10, p. 1176655
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Articles publicats (D-CCAA)
dc.rights
Attribution 4.0 International
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dc.subject
dc.title
Addressing marine restoration success: evidence of species and functional diversity recovery in a ten-year restored macroalgal forest
dc.type
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
dc.rights.accessRights
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.type.version
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
dc.identifier.doi
dc.type.peerreviewed
peer-reviewed
dc.identifier.eissn
2296-7745